groceries {notes} © by striatic
Food, oh wonderful food, how we love you, hate you, need you well at least I do.
Today is Blog Action Day and the theme is food. While the need for food is an issue for so many right now it got me thinking of my of my own need for food. I realize I have had a love, hate relationship with food since I was young.
Food became my solace, my escape when I was young. Food was my constant companion, and friend when it seemed that the world had conspired against me. I never had bulimia,or anything else that I have seen happen as so many grapple with their relationship to food. What woman hasn’t reached for that bowl of ice cream, that piece of chocolate, or that glass of whatever when they are seeking comfort and solace? I know I have.As a young woman I even hid food, so it would be there when I needed it.
As a mother another sort of relationship began with food, I wanted to be the example but after many years of the processed comfort food it was difficult to give up my addiction to processed junk. I began a slow arduous journey that was extremely difficult, as I was living in Canadian poverty. When you are poor it is difficult to eat well, especially if you have to visit food banks, and I did. It is even harder to eat healthy when all you have in the cupboards is processed junk. For several years I became a sporadic eater, making sure my daughter was fed and me eating whatever was leftover. Some days I ate very little especially towards the end of the month. Then I had a lightbulb moment and I learned to get creative with the little income I had.
I became a woman who wanted to learn about food, and how to be a smart consumer when it came to what she would spend on, how to use a coupon to save on food, and how to source food cheaply. I am a work in progress when it comes to my relationship with food. I now menu plan, as well, more and more I am cooking with fresher ingredients. Did you know you can get good food on a budget here in Toronto with the Good Food Box? I have realized I like to cook, while I consider myself still a novice in the kitchen. I am working on my relationship to food, how I see it, make it, eat it. Right now my thinking is food should be savoured.
While working on my own relationship with food, I realize there are many living in poverty around the globe this night who would be happy for even one meal. Here close to home though we have many who are hungry right now. The Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto has said food donations are down, can you perhaps spare some to help someone right here in your community? May we take one action this week to help someone who is hungry, let me know if you do.